Bayer reported strong growth in its life sciences businesses in the second quarter of 2013, with new pharmaceutical products ‘progressing considerably better than expected’.
The Germany based group’s sales grew by 1.9% in the second quarter to €10.4bn (Q2 2012: €10.2bn), while net profit rose from €481m in the second quarter of 2012 to €841m.
HealthCare continued its dynamic development, increasing sales in the second quarter by 3.8% to €4.8bn (Q2 2012: €4.6bn), with new products contributing substantially to growth, said Marijn Dekkers, Chairman of the Board of Management.
Pharmaceuticals sales rose by 5.5% to €2.8bn, led by new products such as the anticoagulant Xarelto, the eye medicine Eylea, and the cancer drug Stivarga, which reported combined sales of €339m.
Other leading pharmaceutical products included blood-clotting drug Kogenate (+9.5%) and the cancer drug Nexavar (+7.2%).
Against this positive performance, sales of the multiple sclerosis drug Betaferon/Betaseron continued to fall as expected (-13.8%) compared with a strong quarter in 2012.
Sales of the YAZ/Yasmin/Yasminelle oral contraceptives dropped by 10.9% mainly owing to generic competition in Western Europe and the US.
Dekkers expects Bayer Group sales for the full year to increase by 4–5% to between €40–41bn.
Sales in the Pharmaceuticals segment are now expected to move forward over the full year to more than €11bn, with new products accounting for €1.4bn of this.